come up with a more improved version of what he or she wants to hear. the clock radio keeps going off. we keep hearing sonny and cher saying, i've got you babe. mitt romney keeps honing his latest pickup line. that's "hardball" for now. thank you for being with us. "the ed show" starts right now. good evening, americans. welcome to "the ed show." 29 days until the election. mitt romney is sty trying to use fear and lying to get into the white house. he won't get away with it tonight. this is "the ed show." let's get to work. america's security cannot afford four more years like the last four years. >> the romney lies continue in virginia. tonight retired cornell lawrence wilkerson. the president dedicates a national monument to cesar

chavez and the theorists foam at the mouth. >> do you think they change the numbers? >> i do. >> ari melber from the latest on the reality. >> the reason we face a difficult in our problem-solving mechanism is a good portion of the country has created an alternate universe. >> in a new study, shows america just how discriminatory and racist the republican early to stop early voting really was. you won't believe these numbers. good to have you with us. thanks for watching. mitt romney is following up his debate performance in denver last week by introducing the country to the new mitt romney. the new mitt romney is not the candidate we've seen for the last couple of years. last week romney lied about his policies on taxes, education and health care. today the candidate's positions

went under the knife during a speech at the military institute. romney laid out a complete reversal on his strategy for middle east peace. >> i'll recommit america to the goal of a democratic, prosperous state living side by side in peace and security with the jewish state of israel. >> the new mitt romney is committed to a two-state solution, but this is not what mitt romney told a group of donors in private. >> priceless tape.

direct from romney's mouth, you hope for some stability and hope something will happen. listen to the new mitt romney today in his opinion on hope. >> i know the president hopes for a safer, freer and more prosperous middle east aligned with us. i share this hope. but hope is not a strategy. >> the new mitt romney didn't flinch when he made a false accusation. >> i'll champion free trade and restore it as a critical element of our strategy. both in the middle east and across the world. the president has not signed one new free trade agreement in the past four years. i'll reverse that failure. >> romney's correct. the president has not signed one new trade agreement. in fact, the president of the united states has signed three new trade agreements.

he did it last year with bipartisan support from congress. the new mitt romney hopes you forgot about those trade agreements. just like he hopes you forgot about his own position on foreign aid. >> i'll make further reforms to our foreign assistance to create incentives for good governance, free enterprise and greater trade in the middle east and beyond. i'll rally our friends and allies to match our generosity with theirs. >> this will come as a surprise to our allies. mitt romney took his cues from foreign aid from rick perry. >> one of the things we have to do with our foreign aid commitments, the ongoing foreign aid commitments, you start everything at zero. a new strategy is to keep things deliberately vague. this week marks the 11th year of the war in afghanistan. romney took heat for not mentioning afghanistan during his convention speech. but the new mitt romney finally has a position on the war. >> in afghanistan i'll pursue a

real and successful transition to afghan security forces by the end of 2014. >> that just happens to be the exact same position of the current president of the united states. this guy named barack obama. romney didn't offer any additional specifics, so it's hard to tell if he has really any disagreement with the president over afghanistan. the same goes for iran. >> i'll put the leaders of iran on notice that the united states and our friends and allies will prevent them from acquiring nuclear weapons capability. >> if you believe the new mitt romney, he's going to prevent iran from getting a nuclear weapon. president obama says the same thing, but mitt romney doesn't say how had he will prevent iran from getting a nuclear weapon. he also doesn't tell you who is advising him on all of these matters. one of his foreign policy advisers is john bolten, who never bet a bomb he couldn't launch. he told fox news, the better way

to prevent iran from getting nuclear weapons is to attack the program directly. oh, boy. another romney adviser, here's a dandy. state department official robert joseph. joseph, you're wondering where do woe know this guy from? he's been calling for an attack on iran since 2006. and you might remember him as the guy who told president bush to use a false story about iraq and uranium. then there's elliot cohen, who says romney wouldn't rule out sending troops to libya. anybody in favor of that? it's no wonder romney's foreign policy got a thumbs up from donald rumsfeld who tweeted, terrific, comprehensive speech by romney. he knows the role of the united states in the world should be a leader. it came out of the play book.

vote for us, or we're going to get attacked again. >> america's security and the cause of freedom cannot afford four more years like the last four years. >> mitt romney will not let americans know what his real policies are. it's the bush administration all over again, especially when it comes to foreign policy. how does that sit with you? obama adviser robert gibbs and newt gingrich can agree on how mitt romney will say anything to get elected. >> mr. speaker, you mentioned that your opponent mitt romney had a problem with being dishonest in the primary. was he dishonest when he said that? >> i think he's clearly changed. >> romney's positions have changed. the only path for the white house is for voters to pretend the changes never happened. get your cell phones out. want to know what you think. who do you trust when it comes to foreign policy decisions? text a for president obama, text b for mitt romney to 622639.

we'll bring you the results later on in the show. you can leave a comment on our blog as well. joining me tonight is former chief of staff at the state department during colin powell's term and the visitoring professor at the college of william and mary. cornell, good to have you with us tonight. >> good to be here, ed. >> you heard the speech today. what is fact, what is fiction in mitt romney's foreign policy? >> let me just say first, ed, that i have never in some 68 years on this earth witnessed any political candidate for the united states move so swiftly from his speech to the right wing of the party to the center where he's trying to attract the majority of americans and change his views so stunningly. you pointed it out, but it is utterly unbelievable to me as a republican that we could have

such extremes in the party and have someone who would try to address both of them and win the white house. >> would mitt romney take us to war against iran? >> i don't know, because i don't know what his policy is, ed. i think his policy, from what i've heard and talked to some of his advisers about, is almost identical with president obama's. but in order to establish a gap between them, he seems to be saying things that would indicate, yes, he would take us to war, yet again, in western asia. >> romney talked about military spending today. here's how he's going to spend tax dollars. here it is. >> i'll restore our navy to the size needed to fulfill our missions by building 15 ships per year, including three submarines. i will implement effective military defenses. >> where's he getting the money for this? and is all that necessary? >> that's a good question.

we did a study at the center for american progress and the institute for policy studies, former assistant secretary of defense was on the board with me. we showed how if you cut national security spending, ed, not just the pentagon, but everything across the board, va, does you can cut a trillion dollars out and still bring us back to 2007, 2007 level spending in inflation-adjusted dollars. for 13 years now, we have been increasing the defense budget. you could easily cut -- to hear this man talk about what secretary gates was recommending, but to the point to increase the budget and build more ships is preposterous. we don't need that sort of increase in defense spending. what we need is for the national security budget to pay its efforts towards reducing the deficit while keeping us safe.

we're not fighting china. we're not fighting a coalition of nations. we're fighting, at best, some terrorists in the world. the best thing for that is special operating forces as president obama has shown with the killing of osama bin laden. this is insanity. he's operating on a cold war music sheet. >> cornell, what do you make of donald rumsfeld giving his endorsement to mitt romney's foreign policy speech today? >> that's sort of like having a till of the hen and tell them they are doing all right. donald rumsfeld has zero credibility with me. he would never regain it. >> what about all these bushies who are around mitt romney? john bolten, he talks very recklessly when he talks about containing iran. he scares a lot of people with his rhetoric. does he really believe it and do you think that romney would be influenced by that kind of conversation?

>> i think he would, and i think john bolten will be in this administration in some capacity. john will make sure he's in this administration should romney win. the man scares me to death. he would defeat all the enemies of america, and they are plentiful, and do it it with everyone else's blood. john is like dick cheney. never served a day in his life and wouldn't serve a day in his life, nor would he allow, if he had any, his family members to serve a day in their life. these people make me sick, ed. >> cornell wilkerson, always great to have you with us. i appreciate it so much. thanks for your insight. remember to answer tonight's question. share your thoughts on twitter. we want to know what you think. donald trump says the job numbers are a lot of monkey business. ari melber joins me. so much more coming up. we're right back.

republicans continue to push conspiracy theories. the nation's ari melber joins me to discuss the alternate reality, next. female legislators and candidates could gain several states in the senate this november. we'll look at why women are leading in some key senate races across america. and as ohio judge upholds early voting on the final three days before the election, a new study reveals the effect voting restrictions would have on the african-american community. i'll have reaction from ohio state senator nina turner in studio with us tonight. share your thoughts with us on facebook and on twitter using "the ed show." we're coming right back.

welcome back to "the ed show." thanks for watching tonight. the focus of republicans alternate reality has shifted lately from poll numbers to job numbers. today donald trump was the latest to say the obama administration cooked the books. >> do you think they changed the numbers? >> i did. i think they did a lot of monkey business. in a month and a half from now, they will do a readjustment like has been happening for the last year and a half. they will do a readjustment and the number will be 8.2% or more. >> last week it was former general chief jack welch, alan west and some right wing pundits making the allegation. we should remind viewers what got them so excited. the unemployment rate dipped below 8% for the first time in four years. until a few days ago,

conservatives were claiming all the national poll, they must be way off. now that it romney's post debate bounce is fading, we'll probably hear it again. the latest poll shows obama's lead widening to 5 points again. the president was shoring up the vote. he dedicated a moment to cesar chavez. >> where there had once been despair, cesar gave workers a reason to hope. it's people. more than higher wages or better working conditions. that was cesar's gift to us. a reminder that we are all god's children. >> president obama dedicating a monument to cesar chavez. let's bring in ari melber. great to have you with us tonight. president obama is not taking his lead or his strength from the hispanic community. he wants more. playing to his base, how smart a strategy is it?

>> i think it's smart and i think what the president has to do right now is get out there and get into the fight. i think people want to see him talking to voters, talking about the unemployment numbers, which as you pointed out, are improving. still tough out there, but the best in four years. and i think that's the thing about the debates. they happen, but on the ground, that's not the only thing people are thinking about. >> donald trump is trying to stir the conspiracy theory about job numbers. how can you have 31 months of private sector job growth, the department of labor, not taking any heat at all until right now. now all of a sudden they are cooking the books. >> people say there's two parties in american politics. we found the third party and that's conservative truthers. they will find and make up and lie about anything they don't like. i want to be clear. this is worse than attacking the messenger, which is an old thing in politics. this is trying to beat up the facts. and what happens is every time

they do it, they get some of the media to go along and get confused instead of focusing on the facts. it looks like some of what the president is trying to do is work it. >> here's ed gillespie about the unemployment rate. here it is. >> our unemployment rate has come down because since president obama took office, for every new job created, more than six workers have left the labor force. >> in september, however, did the bureau of labor statistics numbers show that the rate coming down because of workers entering the labor force? this really is the key right here. >> yeah. you do have a question about the long-term unemployed and whether they stop looking for work. the bureau does two surveys. they talk to workers and employers. so there's a lag there that some people aren't being counted. but that has nothing to do with the fact that the general picture is improving. that issue is baked into the numbers all the time.

what the republicans have here is a real problem. they said that the president wasn't doing anything on the economy and that anything would be better than the president. anything out there, even if mitt romney is not very credible. they are going into november and what they find is we have the best job market that we have had in four years. they have to start making stuff up. they have to start attacking the messenger, the facts, and everything else. that's their fundamental problem, the facts. >> when you look at the job market right now and you see these positive numbers, over five million people have been put back to work. 31 months of private sector job growth. romney did not go after the 7.8%. he just said this is not what a recovery looks like. what do you make of that? everybody else is talking about cooking the books, but romney wouldn't go that far. >> it's a good question. it shows that he knows where his vulnerability is. if you look at the debate numbers, if you look at the new

numbers from pew, what you find is generally people thought romney did better and that includes democrats did thought romney did better. the group of people who didn't move at all, people making under $75,000. didn't move at all. >> they know who he is and what he's about. >> he's better off change the subject than getting into that. he hasn't moved those people. >> all right. ari, great to have you with us. appreciate your time. up next, republicans do not see this coming. three women are using three crucial issues to beat three gop favorites. the senate surprises next. then fox news is back up mitt romney's $5 trillion tax lie. i'll talk with msnbc contributor e.j. dionne about that. you're watching "the ed show" on msnbc.

thanks for staying with us on "the ed show." i find this an interesting political story. three women are using three key issues to basically stun republicans and pull ahead in their senate races. the republicans expected all of these women to lose. instead, they are out campaigning their opponents and boosting support for president obama. let's start with democrat tammie baldwin and the medicare debate. baldwin is three points ahead of tommy thompson in wisconsin. here's the main reason.

thompson was caught on camera promising to do away with medicare and medicare. thompson has tried to clarify the comments. it's not working. the latest ad shows her taking care of her late grandparents. she promises to leave medicare alone. so baldwin is proving to be a tougher candidate than the republicans bargaining for in the badger state. but there's another surprise for the gop. elizabeth warren is ahead of scott brown in massachusetts. warren uses the 47% comment to go after brown on tax fairness. brown responds by attacking warren's native american heritage? his staffers were even caught on tape making racist gestures. brown thinks he can win the election on this issue, but it's not working. warren is ahead by five points. her fellow democrat in missouri is doing better. claire mccaskill is winning on women's issues. todd akin coined the phrase

"legitimate rape." he was caught on tape saying he doesn't support fair pay for women because it hurts free enterprise? mccaskill, warren, and baldwin are focusing on women's issues, the 47% and medicare, it's working. and there are others. heidi heitkamp is in a race in north dakota. shelley berkley is neck and neck in nevada. all of these women are giving the democrats a fighting chance and taking control of the senate. i'm joined by michelle goldberg contributing writing for "newsweek" and keli goff, political correspondent for theroot.com. i guess we could say that maybe four or five months ago, we wouldn't be here having this conversation. but it's been the war on women, it's been the middle class, the 47% comment.

there's a host of things out there. it's really having a down ballot effect. how scary is it right now for the republicans if this is just going to blow up in their face? >> what's scary is a couple of the races are races that they really shouldn't be losing. the todd akin race, most obviously. but even wisconsin, even a lot of people who really admire tammy baldwin, a popular governor, they thought she was in a lot of trouble. instead she's really pulling ahead. >> when you see the number of democratic female candidates who are doing well, does this help the president? what does it look like? >> absolutely. they called 1992 the year of the woman. there's the landmark year where dozens of female democratic members of congress were swept up in the clinton year. and 20 years later, we appear to be having another one. the reason this is good for the

president is it helps increase the turnout and enthusiasm for female voters. there's polling that shows women's issues have been being a ballot effect in terms of getting moderate women to go to the polls and feel they have to show up and fight. there are moderate women who may not have been that enthusiastic about the president. they are enthusiastic about knowing the term "legitimate rape" is not a legitimate term. >> massachusetts has never elected a woman as governor or to the united states senate. >> right. >> and elizabeth warren was asked about it in the last debate. here's her response. >> i wonder why you think that massachusetts has never elected a female senator or governor. >> i don't know.

>> no idea. does it trouble you? >> well, right now, i'm trying to do something about that. >> isn't that just a fantastic answer? >> there's been a lot of studies about one of the reasons that the gap in political representation is so wide is because of who runs as opposed how likely women are to win when they run. there's been an untapped pool of of talent that women weren't putting themselves forward. they were less likely to be recruited. researchers see when women run, they are as likely to win as men are. >> what about north dakota's race with heidi heitkamp, former attorney general up against one of the wealthiest members of congress in rick berg. he came in in the tea party wave but has not been very popular in the state. it's a red state. she's a populist.

>> if democrats hold on to the senate, they actually gain, which no one predicted we would be having this conversation, they will have a big politicians name is todd akin. i say that because -- >> you think he's affected all the races? >> it's a cancer that's spread in terms of you already had the talk about the war on women. they say that's not true. there's no such thing as a war on women. someone says i'm convinced doctors are giving abortions to women who aren't even pregnant. that's one of your nominees. it becomes tough to say no our party doesn't have an issue with women. call me crazy. >> i have often thought that the cuts in medicaid that have been proposed in the ryan plan has affected a lot of the races. because as families in america, we try to take care of our parents.

that effects moms. i think that effects women really a lot. they see that and they say, i'm not for that. am i wrong on that? >> as much as we've been talking about women's issues, in a lot of the races, what these women are running on is, like you said, economic populism. it's the core of elizabeth warren's message. it's the core of the message in north dakota. so in a sense, economic populism shades over into women's issues because women end up being the person in charge of caring for ailing family members, being the person in charge of health care for their children. so they know very viscerally what it would mean to lose medicaid which is paying for the nursing home of, you know, of their ageing parents. >> it doesn't sit well. >> in my column i talked about after the debate, for all of the bad news, the one thing i notice if you counted how many times the president said education and health care, women voters are

more likely to vote on things like health care and education and medicare for the reasons you're talking about. they are the ones who have responsibility for kids and elderly. >> keli goff, michelle goldberg, great to have you with us. a lot more coming up in the next half hour. stay with us. we're coming right back. my plan is different. it involves 41 basic elements. six abrupt reversals of position and three outright lies. >> it would be funny if it wasn't so true. next up, e.j. dionne on the moral hole of mitt romney's lies and his budget. another big-time ceo gets caught advising his employees to vote romney or else. that story ahead. in a new study out of ohio, shows america just how racist the state's anti-early voting effort really was. you won't believe these numbers. state senator nina turner joins me live in studio.

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you're not just looking for a house. you're looking for a place for your life to happen. or treat gas with these after you get it. now that's like sunblock before or sun burn cream later.

oh, somebody out there's saying, now i get it! take beano before and there'll be no gas. we share responsibility for creating an economy where parents with jobs earn enough to care for their families. in order to cut taxes for the wealthy, the romney/ryan budget would make it tougher on hard working americans. >> that was the democratic national convention last month. campbell and her group will be kicking off another leg of their anti-poverty tour. this take making stops in ohio. meanwhile, mitt romney still can't give a straight answer on exactly what his tax plan is for the the wealthy. romney campaigned on giving the mega rich a tax cut. his website backs him up. yet at the debate, romney claimed the opposite.

>> first of all, i don't have a $5 trillion tax cut. let me repeat what i said. i'm not in favor of a $5 trillion tax cut. >> analysis from the nonpartisan tax policy center found romney's plan would cost the country $5 trillion over the the next ten years. romney's friends at fox news say romney doesn't have to explain his fuzzy math. here's chris wallace defending romney's flip-flop to governor martin o'malley. >> the president keeps saying that mitt romney is proposing a $5 trillion tax cut. that's not true. >> chris, wait a minute here. former governor is proposing a cut to income taxes including for the wealthiest of americans and i believe a 30% cut to corporate income taxes. >> any economist may debate whether that adds up to $4.9

trillion or $5 trillion. >> you're mischaracterizing the romney plan. you're saying, you're right, $5 trillion by lowering the tax rates, but he also talks about cutting loopholes. that's part of the plan. >> he won't say which loopholes and which deduction. >> joining me is e.j. dionne, author of the new book "our divided political heart." i've got so much heart. you know the details, the devil in the details, however, you want to say it. the fact of the matter is, we do not have the loopholes on the table that mitt romney is talking about. and i tweeted out tonight, could we actually elect a man who has not explained his tax proposal to the american people when we're sitting supposedly on the edge of this cliff when it comes to the country's finances? e.j., your thoughts?

>> i still don't think voters will support something like this, not knowing what's in it. i've been wondering why we haven't heard more of romney was for his $5 trillion tax cut before he was against it. because you look at this plan and it is $5 trillion that all those cuts add up to. you've got to offset them somehow. the only way to offset them with enough noun make any difference at all is to go after the popular duh deductions. i mean, that's where the money is. >> sure. >> it's astonishing to me, that's where a lot of us wish -- the president just said, how do you pay for it? but the other piece of this is in the primaries, he really didn't talk a whole lot about the offsets. he talked about cutting taxes

for everybody. that's the etch a sketch thing that he really was doing in a very big way in that debate. >> so anybody asking mitt romney to explain the math i guess is just mischaracterizing his plan. very clever way that chris wallace put it that way. mischaracterizing what? i mean the country deserves the details. will the lack of specifics catch up to romney in this election? is this really going to be his pitfall with the middle class that he can't explain where he's going to take them or try to? >> maybe i'll cut chris wallace a little slack because he pressed paul ryan on this very question. it was in pressing ryan, ryan couldn't say. he said i don't really have time to explain the math. and i think in this coming week's debate with joe biden, that is going to be a question that joe biden is going to ask him over and over again and give him all the time in the world to

explain what deductions he would get rid of. when you look at this rate that he's talking about, there's a lot of money that's going to people at the upper end. it's very hard to offset their tax cut. even if you took away all their deductions. >> the the latest column, you posed the question, does our presidential campaign lack a moral core? what did you mean by that? >> i was struck in the debate that there was very little passion and absolutely no passion for the poor. and that's why i love the nuns on the bus. they are not assuming with the middle class people don't care at all about poor people or low income people. they are saying we as a country ought to care about them. i'd love to see a politician say what fdr said. better the occasional faults of a government that lives in a spirit of charity than a government frozen in the ice of its own indifference. i just feel like we're letting ourselves get frozen in our own indifference because no one

takes on the demonizing of the poor or defending programs for the poor that actually work. that's what the nuns on the bus are out there doing. >> e.j., let's go back to 2008 and the vice presidential debate where joe biden was up against sarah palin. everybody knew that she was information challenged and there was somewhat of a tight rope that joe biden was walking there. he didn't want to come out overbearing or disrespectful because that could have hurt the ticket with female voters in america. now it's totally different. isn't it? now joe biden who has kind of been held back by the administration is being nudged out there to say, go get him, joe. what do you make of this? >> i think joe biden is a better debater than president obama. i thought that back in 2008. i saw several debates where joe biden outdebated all of them on the stage. and so, yes, i think there's no -- there are going to be no

holds barred here. he has to make up for some of the questions that president obama didn't have the last time. and so i think this is going to be -- i certainly hope it's more of an exciting debate than the first debate. it's a debate that won't have the moral hole in it quite as much. biden can get passionate about some of the issues related to unfairness and equality. >> e.j. dionne, always great to have you with us. coming up, a ceo tells his employees if president obama is is reelected, prepare for a pay cut. i'll tell you all about the

up next, find out why the ceo of a michigan company says employees should expect money in their paychecks if president obama wins a second term. and in the big finish, how discriminatory ohio's early voting restrictions would have been. nina turner will join me. you can listen to my radio show

on channel 127 monday through friday, noon to 3:00 p.m. follow me on twitter @edshow. we're coming right back. stay with us. [ male announcer ]d a dollar for every dollar car insurance companies say they'll save you by switching, you'd have like, a ton of dollars. but how are they saving you those dollars? a lot of companies might answer "um" or, "no comment." then there's esurance. born online, raised by technology, and majors in efficiency. so whatever they save, you save. hassle, time, paperwork, hair-tearing-out, and yes, especially dollars. esurance. insurance for the modern world. click or call.

welcome back to "the ed show." in the business world, the boss can do whatever he wants to do. this is an interesting one in that the president and ceo of a michigan-based manufacturer sent a letter to his 2300 employees warning them, if this guy president obama gets reelected, their paychecks are going to get a lot smaller. in the letter leaked to an online site, richard lax of lax enterprises writes, it's important that in november you vote to improve your standard of living and that will be through smaller government and less government. he goes on to write, obama care will raise the company's health insurance costs by 2%. as employees, you will receive no additional direct benefit

other than you will have to pay for it. lax also warns that any additional tax increase discussed by the administration would come out of the employee pay. it is always important to remember the more the government takes the less there will be available to spread around to the working people of this company. now here's the the kicker in all of this. lax enterprises makes automobile parts and business is pretty good. in fact, the letter also notified employees of their sixth bonus in almost three years. what happened about three years ago? wasn't there something going on with the automobile industry like a loan put out? but the company tries to claim their auto-related business did not benefit from the obama administration's auto loan. he writes, we survived because our business model and the money we have in the bank to survive these downturns, it would not have provided lax with any

direct dollars. really? but who does lax enterprise count on as clients? general motors? chrysler? ford? sure lax didn't get direct dollars, but if it weren't for the automobile loan forked out by the obama administration, if mitt romney had had his way and let detroit go bankrupt, there wouldn't be all those cars for lax enterprises to make parts for, don't you think? tonight in our survey i asked, who do you trust when it comes to foreign policy decisions? 95% of you say president obama. 5% of you say mitt romney. coming up, a new study shows how racist ohio's anti-early voting law was. nina turner is here with us. we're right back.

in the big finish tonight, a study is exposing how racist an anti-voting law was. it would discriminate against african-americans in ohio's second largest city of cleveland. the study found that african-americans used early in person voting at 26 times the rate of white voters in 2008. the study used census tracks where the voting population is over 80% african-american.

every one of those red dots on the map represent 50 early voters. ohio republicans were trying to end early voting 72 hours prior to election day except for members of the armed forces. luckily for all ohio voters, their efforts have failed. on friday a federal appeals court judge upheld a lower courts decision striking down the law. the three-judge panel ruled the 72-hour voting period should be open to all voters in the state, including members of the military. this is good news. some questions still remain. it's being report the the final decision could be up to individual ohio counties meaning 72-hour window we're talking about could still end in certain places in the state. ohio republicans can still file another appeal sending it to the supreme court. as of now, there's no word of that appeal. it is big. president obama needs ohio to win the election.

in most scenarios played out. for more on this, i'm joined by ohio state senator nina turner with us here in studio in new york. senator, great to have you with us tonight. this is really proof, isn't it? that there was targeting of the african-american communities. >> there's no doubt about it. the republicans seem to have a conflict with the truth. now that the lawyers group has conducted a study, the only type of voting that they are trying to suppress is early in person voting. vote by mail, they have expanded with glee. but the voting with the most detrimental impact they have cut. >> what's going to happen with the supreme court? do you think the republicans will keep pushing this sor is this the way it's going to be? explain how they can shut it down in some counties. >> it's a good decision and i'm glad the courts upheld the ruling. what it does is restore us to prehouse bill. that means that boards of elections will have the

opportunity. we did have weekend voting in the last three days. so it's a good thing. it's my hope that it the republicans will not make a mockery of what the judges have decided, which is to give more access to the ballot box. >> a cleveland city councilwoman took this photo of a billboard in the city of cleveland. it says, voter fraud is a felony, up to three and a half years in prison and a $10,000 fine. what advice do you have for people intimidated by this? >> we went to that billboard together. as tears welled up in my eyes at the sight of that. the fact that african-americans have had to fight so hard to get the right to vote, and then you have groups who are putting billboards up like that. the mayor of the city of cleveland lives two streets over. we're going to continue to fight.

we'll not be pushed back by these intimidation efforts. they know disproportionately this will have an impact on the the african-american community who they are represented in the prison system or some of them do have felonies. but you can vote in the state of ohio even if you are an ex-offender. >> how are things looking for president obama in ohio? i know the polls have gone from 5-9 points and bouncing around, but how is he doing? >> he's doing well. we are on the ground. we are going door to door. the president is still going to win ohio. you know, when the polls are up for our side, we're happy. when the polls are up for their side, they're happy. but the ultimate poll is what folks do on election day. and ohio is going to vote for the man that stands by their side. >> does the african-american community feel like they have been targeted? is the burn in the belly? >> it is. there's no doubt about it. it doesn't matter if you meant to kill me on purpose or accident, dead is dead.